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Chapter 28 - Sink It (CitC)
The plan to defeat the weapon was much less planned out than the one to defeat the Comet Observatory. The first issue with coming up with a concrete plan was that they had no idea the dimensions of the weapon, or what the weapon even was. Although they had flown past it on their first trip to the Comet Observatory, Iggy had detected an intense cloaking field around the weapon, so that it resembled the patches of space beyond it. What they could tell about the weapon was that it was incredibly large in all three dimensions, judging by the size of the cloaking field, but Iggy and Ludwig warned that even a tiny bit of the weapon could throw off the field, such as a top spire. So, the first order of business was defeating the cloaking field around the weapon. Tubba was relieved when he found out there would be need to go aboard the weapon just yet, because he didn't have full faith in electrical abilities yet. Bowser Jr. was quite confident that the power of their Power Stars could overwhelm the cloaking field built up by the Mushroom Kingdom's Power Stars. As they approached the weapon's cloaking field, they turned on their own cloaking field, knowing that since they were in motion, it woud be incredibly hard to detect them. A plan to defeat many types of weapons were in order. If the weapon was more of a classical style, with the energy of the power stars being absorbed into a cannon-type gun that was trained on the Koopa Kingdom, the solution would be simple: release the power stars stealthily while preventing them from enabling it. If it was a bomb launcher with power stars attached to each bomb, they would just have to get them to enable the bombs by infiltrating the ship, only to have the bombs blown apart before they reached the Mushroom World, by the Doomship lingering nearby under the cloaking field. But what they did not have a plan for was what appeared before them when the cloaking field was lifted. Rather than a weapon of any type before them, what they saw was a large, glass cage, containing hundreds of Power Stars, with no indication of a weapon in sight. The cages were not unlike the many cages Bowser had used to cover Power Stars back when he fought Mario in space eight years ago, with wood circling around in both vertical and horizontal directions, holding the glass panes in place. However, while the cage was quite small in reference to what they were detecting on the cloaking field, with only long spires reaching out to throw the cloaking field off. From their position slightly far away, the cage only appeared as big as a golf ball through the frontal window. "Of course!" Ludwig exclaimed, glaring out the frontal window at the bright lights of the many Power Stars. "Zee information vas planted! Zey vanted US to get zee Power Stars from Rosalina, as vell as reveal our best technology... how did I not see zat vone coming? And now zey'll sink us vith zeir top ship?" Everyone else was exchanging glances ranging from confused to worried, angry to disbelieving from their spots in their various chairs. "Not so smart, eh Luddy?" Bowser Jr. sneered, pulling the Doomship into a halt. "I mean, those Power Stars are completely unprotected..." "DON'T HOLD THE DOOMSHIP STILL!" Ludwig cried, but he was too late. A massive explosion rocked the Doomship, throwing Ludwig, who was the only person standing, to the floor. "Zey're not unprotected!" The artifical lights flickered above their head, and Bowser Jr. swore, before adding, "We're taking fire!" "Then get afta dem!" Roy shouted at his youngest brother, who was currently engrossed in the various panels on his left, some red, some yellow, and others still green. "I can't hold the cloaking field if we want to put up our defences! The cloaking field took too much energy from the Power Stars so I had to put down the defences! I thought we were attacking?" Junior spoke very fast and very worriedly, running his clawed fingers all over the panels. Tubba watched the scene unfolding in front of him, strangely calm. "Let's take the attack to them?" He asked, but no one listened. Ludwig was busy berating Bowser Jr. on turning off the defence systems, Roy was yelling at Morton, Larry and Wendy to stay in their seats and begin searching for an enemy to fire at, the battlers were all engrossed in the argument between Ludwig and Bowser Jr. before them, while Iggy took off down the bridge, clearly in the direction of the engine, to see if anything was damaged from the first attack. "Let's take the attack to them?" Tubba asked again, irritation now creeping into his tone, unbuckling himself from his seat. Thankfully, this time, his words had the desired effect, with most of the people on the bridge turning to look at him. "And how are we supposed to do that, shorty?" Morton grunted at him, craning his neck to see Tubba behind him, with many of the other Koopalings wearing similar looks of skepticism. Gonzales got up from his seat and stood next to Tubba. The dark blue Clubba exchanged a quick glance with Tubba, asking if he could give his opinion. Tubba nodded at Gonzales, who then turned back to the crowd in front of them. "Blow apart the Power Star cage." Gonzales ordered. "What?" "No way!" "Are ya stupid?" The Koopalings said in various notes of disagreement, but Junior, having put up the defences at the cost of the cloaking field, remarked: "No, he's right. We have no idea what's attacking us so far, because they clearly have a cloaking field. If we blow apart the Power Star cage, either they will be forced to lose it to space or swoop underneath it, giving away their location." Blizzerd's fat lips curled into a smile. "And then, if we hit it with a good shot, it'll make them visible and likely make a gap in their hull." "Then," GB plodded along the floor to join his fellow battlers. "We," he gestured to the battlers, "can infiltrate their ship, and take it down from the inside!" Ludwig scratched the blue stubble on the base of his chin. "Zat's actually not a bad plan. Do it." He ordered Bowser Jr., who clearly had no qualms, and tapped a button on his panel. Tubba could not see or hear what was going on, or what was being fired, but what he did see was the explosion of the glass cage surrounding the Power Stars, sending them flying toward the Mushroom World, being dragged in by their gravity. "Dere!" Roy cried, pointing at where he could clearly see Power Stars disappearing before they reached the Mushroom World. "Dat's where deir ship is!" Tubba peered over the shoulder of Gonzales, and he too could clearly see where the Power Stars, rather than continuing their fall toward the Mushroom World. "Shoot!" Blizzerd snarled at Ludwig, who gave Junior a thumbs up, but not before fixing Blizzerd with a displeased glare. Again, Tubba didn't see or hear what was going on, but soon, there was a telltale explosion on the seemingly empty patch of space where the Power Stars were disappearing to, until a ship apparently popped into existence, listing badly and Power Stars flowing through it's top. The hull resembled Peach's plane that she took to the BeanBean Kingdom many years ago, not least in the glaring magenta colour, but it also was clearly adapted to space travel, with no wings, and rather, engines that were spewing hot fire at the tail. From the distance they were at, the ship was no bigger than Tubba's hand. There was a gaping hole in the left side hull and it was leaning heavily to the left. "Right, go battlers!" Ludwig shouted, "you're going to need to take spacesuits, and climb onto homing bullet bills! We're going to aim them at the ship's hole in the hull, and you'll need to be on them!" Tubba didn't wait to be told twice, he immediately took off out of the bridge, racing down the stairs to where he would be needed. The battlers were hot behind him, and soon they were pacing anxiously in front of the same metal doors that would've taken them to the Comet Observatory. The same three Koopatrols were waiting for them, in the same roles as before. Two were waiting at the metal doors, while a third stared a panel that was currently red. Lined up on the wall opposite to the stairs the battlers came down were six space suits, clearly magically adapted into the shapes of three Clubbas, a Blooper, a Ghost Shy Guy and a Barribad. In front of the door were six deactivated bullet bills, noses pointing toward the door. With speed of the essence, Tubba had himself in his space suit and was awkwardly sitting on the bullet bill within two minutes. GB, Dibby and Blizzerd had beaten him to it, but Gonzales and Clubbette took slightly longer, taking the time to find the slots in which they would put their clubs in the spacesuit. While Tubba had found a viable replacement for his lost club, it didn't suppress a pang of regret. That club was the last echo of his father. But Tubba didn't have much time to dwell on it. When they were ready, in a split second the panel above the third Koopatrol flashed green, and once again, the doors opened and they were hurled into space for battle again.